The Use of Ranitidine in the Management of Duodenal Ulcer

Forty patients with duodenal ulcer were randomly allocated either ranitidine 150 mg twice daily or cimetidine 1 g daily on a single blind basis for 4 weeks initially, with an additional month of treatment if endoscopy showed incomplete healing. The endoscopist was unaware of the patients' treatment. After 8 weeks treatment, the healing rate was 85% for ranitidine and 95% for cimetidine; the difference was not statistically significant. An additional 19 patients who did not fulfill the trial criteria, 11 of whom had not responded to cimetidine, were openly treated with ranitidine 150 mg twice daily. In 16 of the patients, the ulcer had healed at 8 weeks (84%), but in one patient, the ulcer perforated after 6 weeks of therapy. Thus, although overall healing rates with ranitidine and cimetidine are similar, ranitidine may be useful in patients where cimetidine has proved ineffective.